US3635163A

US3635163A - Antipersonnel ordnance device

Info

Publication number: US3635163A
Application number: US379055A
Authority: US
Inventors: Vasil Philipchuk
Original assignee: US Department of Navy
Current assignee: US Department of Navy
Priority date: 1964-06-29
Filing date: 1964-06-29
Publication date: 1972-01-18
Anticipated expiration: 1989-01-18

Abstract

1. A casing for an ordnance device comprising: A WALL HAVING A SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM THICKNESS; SAID WALL BEING COMPRISED OF GENERALLY LINEAR INTERCONNECTED, ANGULARLY DISPOSED SECTIONS FORMING A CORRUGATION CONFIGURATION; AND SAID CORRUGATIONS BEING DISPOSED TRANSVERSE TO THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF THE CASING.

Description

v [22] Filed: June 29, 1964 United States Patent 1 3,635,163 Philipchuk 51 Jan. 18,1972

[5 ANTIPERSONNEL ORDNANCE DEVICE Primary Examiner-Vern" Pendegrass Attorney-R. S. Sciascia and T. 0. Watson, Jr. [72] Inventor: Vasil Philipchuk, Dahlgren, Va.

[73] Assignee: The United States of America as EXEMPLARY CLAIM represented by the Secretary of the Navy l. A casing for an ordnance device comprising:

[ 1 pp No 379 055 a wall having a substantially uniform thickness;

said wall being comprised of generally linear interconnected,

us. or .102/64, 102/24 angularly dislmsed fuming a ..F42b 3/08 and 5s 1 Field of Search ..l02/64, 65, 67 said corrugations being disposed transverse to the longitudiml [56 1 References Cited casing UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 3,081,704 3/1963 Boswell 102/67 mamas JAM 1912 3635163 FIG. 2 3/ was/L PHIL IOHUK 64M kfiw//wllf/ BY waflfl @667 QATTOR/VEY AGENT PATENTED JAN 1 8 m2 SHEET 2 BF 3 PATENTED JAN: 81972 F-JfFET 3 OF 3 ANTIPERSONNEL ORDNANCE DEVICE The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

The present invention relates generally to improvements in the fabrication of warheads used in ordnance devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a new and improved concept of design for warheads utilized in antipersonnel ordnance devices. 7

There are numerous antipersonnel ordnance devices which have as a purpose the immobilization of a group of persons. Prior art devices employ various designs and concepts for dispersing as many fragments as possible in as many directions as possible to maximize the probability of striking a person who is situated in a particular area about the point of detonation. The perfect antipersonnel ordnance device, when fired against a group of persons, detonates to propel lethal projec tiles in all directions to strike every person within a given radius of the spot of detonation. To date, no such antipersonnel device has been developed but those skilled in the art are constantly striving to perfect such an antipersonnel weapon.

The instant invention is an improvement over the known antipersonnel ordnance devices in that it has greater capabilities because it produces an even distribution of more projectiles at a higher initial velocity than prior art devices.

It is therefore the general purpose of this invention to provide an antipersonnel ordnance device which embraces all the advantages of the similarly employed prior art devices and has capabilities not present in the prior art devices. To attain this, the present invention contemplates a unique concept of con struction of a warhead to provide an antipersonnel ordnance device which utilizes a shaped charge and jetting effect upon detonation to propel a maximum number of fragments of the warhead at a higher initial velocity.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an antipersonnel ordnance device which upon detonation fires lethal projectiles into a maximum of particular areas surrounding the point of detonation.

Another object is to provide an antipersonnel ordnance device which is simple, effective and economical to manufacture.

Still another object is to provide an antipersonnel ordnance device which utilizes a warhead of one-piece construction but which has fragmentation capabilities greater than warheads made of individual segments, which segments become projectiles upon detonation.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an illustrative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the present invention; I

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 33 of the device illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view taken along line 4-4 of the alternative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an illustrative prior art antipersonnel ordnance weapon; and

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the same device as illus trated in FIG. I but indicating polar angles.

Referring now to FIG. 1, wherein an illustrative embodiment of the present invention is disclosed, an antipersonnel ordnance device is shown. The ordnance device comprises a casing or housing 11 which is closed off at the ends by plates or bulkheads l2 and I3. Threadedly secured into the plate 13, is a fuse housing 14. A blasting cap 15 is mounted within the fuse housing 14 by a plug 16. The plug 16 may be made of wood, rubber, plastic or any other suitable material. Secured in the lower end of the fuse housing 14 is an initiator pellet 17 which detonates the explosive charge 18. The wall of the casing 11 is corrugated or in a zigzag configuration as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. I. Also, the wall 11 is of uniform thickness. Angle 0 represents the angle between the successive segments of the wall 11 and quantitatively may be of any number of degrees found suitable for particular situations. It has been determined, however, that a most effective fragmentation pattern is accomplished when the angle 0 is 90.

The device as shown in FIG. 5 is a typical prior art device used as an antipersonnel ordnance weapon. The walls of the device in FIG. 5 are of unifonn thickness, however, they are linear and of one unitary piece. The device in FIG. 5 also has a cylindrical body 21, an end plate 22, and the same detonator, generally shown at 23, as that illustrated in FIG. 1. Upon detonation of the device in FIG. 5, the explosive charge breaks or fragmentizes the casing 21; the casing breaks into pieces in a haphazard manner according to the internal stresses within the casing wall. Consequently, the projectiles may be large or small and a different number of projectiles will be produced by each individual device. Therefore, the number of projectiles in a particular area situated about the point of detonation of the prior art device illustrated in FIG. 5 is haphazard and erratic.

In contradistinction to the prior art device illustrated in FIG. 5, the instant invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, provides a consistently numerous amount of fragments upon detonation to effectively cover the entire area about the point of detonation. The corrugations or zigzag construction of the invention provides a jetting elTect of the explosive charge to cause the effective fragmentation of the casing in addition to a higher initial velocity of the fragments. Immediately subsequent to detonation, in any particular area at a distance of approximately 5 feet from the point of detonation of the device of the instant invention, approximately eight to 10 times more fragments are present than in a corresponding area at the same distance from the point of detonation of the prior art device illustrated in FIG. 5. Also, at a radial distance of approximately 15 feet from the point of detonation of the instant device, there are two to four more times as many fragments as there are at a corresponding distance from the point of detonation of a prior art device such as that illustrated in FIG. 5. It is, therefore, empirically clear that the instant invention provides a distinct advance in the art.

In FIG. 2 there is shown an alternative embodiment of the present invention wherein the warhead casing 31 is generally spherical in configuration but changes direction at predetermined points along its surface. The detonator 32 is the same type as illustrated in connection with the device illustrated in FIG. I. The device shown in FIG. 2 provides fragmentation of the casing 31 in a greater number of degrees about the point of detonation than the device illustrated in FIG. I, i.e., to a polar angle of l. The direction in which the fragments of the device illustrated in FIG. 1 are propelled, which is more clearly shown in FIG. 6, is generally between the polar angle of 45 and the polar angle of 135 with a relatively even distribution between the polar angles of 75 and As is apparent in the foregoing description the present invention provides a unique antipersonnel ordnance device which has the capabilities of providing more effective dispersion of fragments of the casing about the point of detonation at a higher initial velocity, culminating in the most useful, advantageous and effective result of providing a more lethal weapon.

While the invention has been described in its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the terminology which has been used herein is intended to be in the nature of words of description rather than of limitation.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. For example, the casing could have the overall general configuration of any of the well-known geometrical shapes, i.e., cube, octagon or the like. Also, the corrugations may be disposed in a variety of relations to the casing, i.e., corrugations formed by a helix around a cylinder, or corrugations disposed longitudinally about a cylindrical surface. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed: 1. A casing for an ordnance device comprising: a wall having a substantially uniform,thickness; said wall being comprised of generally linear interconnected, angularly disposed sections forming a corrugation configuration; and said corrugations being disposed transverse to the longitudinal axis of the casing. 2. A casing as set forth in claim 1 wherein; the general overall configuration of the casing is a cylinder. 3. A casing as set forth in claim 2 wherein; the corrugations are disposed with highs and lows disposed longitudinally along the cylinder. 4. A casing as set forth in claim 1 wherein; the general overall configuration of the casing is a closed sphere. 5. An ordnance device comprising; a casing means for containing an explosive and a detonator,

said casing means having a wall of uniform thickness,

said wall comprised of a plurality of segments of equal length and width,

successive segments being attached in end-to-end fashion,

said successive segments being disposed in a zigzag relationship as viewed in longitudinal cross section, and

said successive segments being disposed with an angle therebetween of from 45 to W0.

6. A warhead means for an ordnance device comprising;

a generally cylindrical casing,

a first means at the first end of said casing to close said casa second means at the second end of said casing to close said casing,

said casing having a bellows shape,

the wall of said casing being of uniform thickness,

successive elements of the bellows configured casing wall being disposed relative to each other at an angle of and the folds of said bellows being disposed transverse to the longitudinal axis of said casing.

Claims

2. A casing as set forth in claim 1 wherein; the general overall configuration of the casing is a cylinder.

3. A casing as set forth in claim 2 wherein; the corrugations are disposed with highs and lows disposed longitudinally along the cylinder.

4. A casing as set forth in claim 1 wherein; the general overall configuration of the casing is a closed sphere.

5. An ordnance device comprising; a casing means for containing an explosive and a detonator, said casing means having a wall of uniform thickness, said wall comprised of a plurality of segments of equal length and width, successive segments being attached in end-to-end fashion, said successive segments being disposed in a zigzag relationship as viewed in longitudinal cross section, and said successive segments being disposed with an angle therebetween of from 45* to 100* .

6. A warhead means for an ordnance device comprising; a generally cylindrical casing, a first means at the first end of said casing to close said casing, a second means at the second end of said casing to close said casing, said casing having a bellows shape, the wall of said casing being of uniform thickness, successive elements of the bellows configured casing wall being disposed relative to each other at an angle of 90*, and the folds of said bellows being disposed transverse to the longitudinal axis of said casing.